The following post is an excerpt from Emotional Aptitude In Sports NOW available through most online retailers! Click Here to Order
Hardships in sports prepare you for the Real World
There is no success in high-performance sport without hardships. Hardships are actually the lessons needed to prepare athletes for success in the real world.
Strength doesn’t come from winning, it comes from the battle.
A study published in The Journal of Personal & Social Psychology reported that individuals who experience normal adverse events have better overall mental health than individuals with no real history of misfortune. I’ve found this same scenario to be true with athletes. Many talented athletes who are coddled and pampered by parents and coaches in their youth have difficulty in handling adversity in their teens. These junior athletes are sheltered from the exact problem-solving skills they need in order to thrive at the higher levels. This lack of resiliency is an especially important life skill needed for success. In a sense, resiliency is like a “psychological immune system” which aids athletes in coping with the hardships that come with competing at the higher levels of sports.
“What doesn’t Kill you… makes you stronger”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Coaches and parents of athletes should be fostering resiliency on a daily basis. I suggest that you re-visit your test scores in section one and customize your developmental pathway.
Life skills Transcend Sports
My daughter, Sarah was a top tennis player in her teens. She won ten National titles, was ranked #1 in the US and played the US Open by age 15. One of her emotional skills developed through sports was perseverance. Fast forward 10 years and she calls me, “Dad, I just closed a half a million dollar deal- in my new sales position. OMG, this is so much easier than pro tennis! I just called the CEO every Tuesday for two months and BINGO! ”
